Baker is one of several young American playwrights singled out for a new style of extremely detailed realism. I have suspected that much of the novelty lies with the directors of theirNew Yorkproductions, because until now the plays I had seen didn’t seem all that different from those written by other current writers.

The version of Baker’s The Aliens now on view at Upstart Productions, though, does convince me there’s something original going on here.

Dallassaw an earlier, outdoor staging of the piece by PlaySite Theatre in early June, but the limited run and tiny seating capacity meant it reached a very small audience. The new production at the Magnolia Lounge marks the return of Upstart under new artistic leadership after a hiatus. David Denson – the only director turned out by Southern Methodist University’s graduate program in recent years – staged the show.

A couple of slacker pals, Jasper (Joey Folsom) and K.J. (Tim Maher), loiter behind a coffee house in a space filled with trash cans and broken furniture. As the conversation winds around in loops and drifts off into allusions incomprehensible to the audience, we learn that Jasper’s girlfriend has dumped him. To the world, these guys are losers. To themselves, they’re geniuses in hiding – Jasper working on an autobiographical novel, K.J. grooving to tunes he wrote for their band that frittered away because they could never agree on a name.

Periodically Evan (Justin Duncan), a high school kid working at the coffee house, comes out to remind the other two they’re not supposed to hang out there. Gradually, the two older men pull him into their outsider sphere. Evan looks up to them, and apparently he hasn’t found much acceptance either at home or at school.

For long stretches, The Aliens doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Yet underneath the rambling dialogue, there’s a tight formal structure. And over the course of the play, momentous events occur without our realizing it. Each of the two long acts ends in a strange euphoria. Are these moments of transcendence, or are the characters just barely fooling themselves? The audience is left to figure this out on its own.

Folsom, back onstage after a couple of years of doing mostly camera work, brings his particular brand of intensity to the desperately serious Jasper.Duncanhas the requisite aura of innocence to do justice to Evan. K.J. is the most difficult role. Maher brings it off, although sometimes his spacey smile might give you the creeps.

In The Aliens, Baker puts a fascinating new spin on the well-worn themes of the alienated artist and male bonding. Yep, it looks like she’s the real deal, after all.